Welcome to The Irish Times Digital Archive.
Have you ever wondered what old newspapers looked like? Have you ever seen an old newspaper?
Now you have a chance to see what The Irish Times newspaper looked like from the time it was first published in 1859. You will also have a chance to read old newspapers to see what they reported about famous things like the sinking of the Titanic.
Before you start to search the old newspapers, let's find out what an archive is.
What Are Archives?
Archives are places where records are kept. They are also the records themselves.
There are many kinds of records kept in archives. Records can be photographs and pictures or documents and newspapers. Old objects called artifacts are kept in museums because they need special treatment and lots of room.
We cannot keep every piece of information or every object from the past because we would not have room to store it all. People have to choose what to keep. A person who works to select, arrange and look after records for an archive is called an archivist.
Who uses archives?
Archives are used by teachers, students, journalists and anybody else who wants to know about events, people and places in the past. Some people visit museums to examine artifacts from the past. Local archives in your town might be kept in your library and you can visit it to find out more about your local area.
The Irish Times Digital Archive
What would you expect to find in a newspaper archive? Newspaper records of course!
In this digital archive you can examine online the actual newspapers that were printed by The Irish Times in the past. You will be able to see the kinds of pictures, advertisements and text that were used in newspapers over time.
Searching the archive
You can search for information in a number of ways. If you go to the search box you can type in the name or event that you want to find out about. Then you will be given a choice of some newspaper articles which were written about this event or person. You can look in the browse box to see a particular year or you can go to the timeline box to find out what happened in particular years.
Copyright and ways in which you are allowed to use the Archive Material
What is copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection in law given to authors or creators of original works. Lots of different things like plays, books, films, songs, poems or, in this case, a newspaper archive can be original works. Copyright gives the creator of the work the right to say who can copy the work, who can distribute or give out the work, who can play it, display it or use copies of it, or parts of it for other purposes. The Irish Times is the creator of the Ask About Ireland Irish Times Archive and so it has the copyright of the archive.
Are there any exceptions to copyright?
The law recognises that there are some situations where copyright protection doesn't need to apply. This means that you can download or print content from the newspaper archive if you are doing it for research, for a project or to study or review it.
But please remember....
Now that you have had an introduction, enjoy searching the archive!